


Royal in the Afternoon

by dharmaavocado



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Modern AU, royal au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:48:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23581867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dharmaavocado/pseuds/dharmaavocado
Summary: “You like a boy,” Cody says, gleeful, as they tackle each other’s bowties.“What are you, five?” Rex says.In which Rex, heir to the throne, likes a boy.
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi/CT-7567 | Rex
Comments: 27
Kudos: 577





	Royal in the Afternoon

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jynx](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jynx/gifts).



> Title taken from The Whitlams song of the same name.
> 
> Over a year ago, I wrote this in response to a "give me an au an I will give you 5 headcanons about it" meme. jynx requested secretly royal au, and uh it may have gotten away from for a bit. But hey what's a fic if not an extended headcanon?
> 
> I figured now was a good time to revise and post. Enjoy.

i. 

Rex is, technically, the heir to the throne. He is second in the chain of succession. Possibly third if Cody ever has a child of his own. 

(The thought of Cody reproducing is horrifying in its own right. Cody is bad enough without adding any future progeny.) 

Rex and Cody are two of four. Their mother, Queen Te Ao, says that every system needs backups and redundancies built into it. She has an engineering degree instead of the more traditional political science because she is nothing if not contrary, a trait all her children inherit, and knows the intricacies and mechanics of building strength and stability into a structure and a country. 

(Of note: Jango is officially known as the Royal Consort and has been for over twenty years when they married when Te Ao was four months pregnant with Cody, and it remains as funny to him now as it did then.) 

“Thanks, mom,” Boba says, rolling his eyes because he is fourteen and even a prince is not immune to the snotty teenage years. 

“But you are the cutest redundancy,” she always answers, and grabs him and kisses his cheeks and chin while Boba, dying of mortification in a way only a fourteen year old can, struggles desperately free and goes to sulk in a dark room, also in the way only a fourteen year old can. 

Rex has more freedom than Cody, in some ways, but he has his own duties to carry out, and so when Cody goes on diplomatic visits, Rex accompanies him. And they are both, in turn, accompanied by aides and handlers and their long suffering personal security, who don’t take any shit from them. 

They’ve been in the capital for a few days when Cody, who can track Rex’s moods better than even their parents and nearly better than Rex himself, says, “We have a free afternoon tomorrow. Just take Ahsoka with you and be back before the state dinner tonight.” 

“Thank you,” Rex says, restless, and makes his escape, although it’s less an escape and more of a sanctioned field trip. 

(When they were younger, Rex and Cody would often switch places. They were barely two years apart and nearly identical in looks. As long as they wore a cap to cover their hair color, even their handlers and tutors could not tell them apart. It became more difficult when Cody got his scar, but not impossible. Like their mother, they are determined.) 

“Contrary,” their grandmother said, but she always smiled as she did so, for they were no more contrary then her.) 

He goes to the university library, the only thing he had been looking forward to this trip. Its ceilings are high and vaulted and its windows made of stained glass. It was a church once, he thinks, though it hardly matters now. What matters is the near endless stacks, stories upon stories of them, and Rex with nothing but an afternoon to wander among them. 

“Check in with me every hour,” Ahsoka says, gaze always looking for danger alighting on him for one long moment to ensure he understands. She takes his mobile and programs an alarm. “And remember we have to be back in time for you to prepare for the dinner.” 

Those are reasonable terms, and so Rex agrees to them and goes wandering. 

(Once, he may have tried to give Ahsoka the slip, but there had been an incident when he was ten and Cody twelve. They had been surrounded by their security, a living wall between them and danger. They would have died to keep the crown princes safe, and Rex has not forgotten it, and so he does his best to make Ahsoka’s life easier, but not too easy. It’s good to keep her on her toes.) 

He has been drifting among the stacks for perhaps an hour when he nearly runs into a man, arms piled high with books. Rex catches them before they hit the ground, and the man blinks at him. “Hello there,” he says. 

“Hello,” Rex answers. The man is pale with a shock of ginger hair and matching beard and washed out blue eyes. Rex is annoyed by how attractive he is. 

“Are you lost?” the man asks. 

Rex goes to shake his head and then takes stock of the section he’s wandered into. “A bit,” he says. “I was looking for literary criticism.” 

(Cody hates the postmodern schools of thought and Rex has plans to wind him up that night between making polite small talk with various politicians). 

“You’re very lost then.” The man shifts his stack and offers his hand. “Obi-Wan Kenobi.” 

“Rex,” Rex says. 

(Rex’s name is not, strictly speaking, Rex. His official one, the one printed on his birth announcement and what he is addressed by ambassadors and dignitaries, is a mouthful. Rex is for his family, for the people he likes, the same way Cody is Cody and Boba is Boba and Fives is, unfortunately, Fives. 

Rex means king, which is his parents’ idea of a joke. 

“Hey, you still could be,” his father likes to say around the holidays. “All you have to do is overthrow your brother.” 

“Please do,” Cody always says; Rex is not stupid enough to try, even as a joke.) 

Obi-Wan is a professor, and he and Rex spend hours in the stacks and among the books talking, only talking without any ulterior motive or hidden barbs or dangerous political undercurrents Rex is tired of navigating. Obi-Wan smiles over their friendly arguments regarding various genres, and Rex finds he likes him. 

His alarm sounds, and Rex says that his friend is waiting and he has to go. 

“Would you like to get coffee sometime?” Obi-Wan asks. 

“I’m only here visiting,” he says. “I have to leave in a few days.” 

“Then tomorrow,” Obi-Wan says. “While you’re still here.” 

His smile is very nice, and Rex nods and goes to find Ahsoka before she finds him and Obi-Wan and judges him. 

* * *

ii. 

Cody, of course, knows something happened, and he gets it out of Rex eventually, like they both know he would. 

“You like a boy,” Cody says, gleeful, as they tackle each other’s bowties. 

“What are you, five?” Rex says. 

“Fortunately for you, I’m not.” He tugs on Rex’s tie. “Which is why I can handle tomorrow’s meetings on my own.” 

And so that is how Rex meets Obi-Wan for coffee, or tea, in Obi-Wan’s case. Ahsoka sits at a nearby table, keeping watch and, Rex is sure, judging. 

Coffee turns into a walk turns into dinner, and when Rex says he needs to return before his friend worries, turns in a good night kiss. Sweet, is his first thought. Obi-Wan sighs gently, and then it turns, well, it’s still sweet, in its own way. 

They meet again the next day after Obi-Wan’s lecture, where Rex sat in the back, and Obi-Wan caught his eye once, and he never faltered but he did smile. After, they bring lunch to the park, and in a secluded section, under a tree whose leaves are just starting to turn colors, Obi-Wan kisses him again. This time Rex is prepared for it and slides a hand into Obi-Wan’s hair and the other to the small of Obi-Wan’s back, and they pass the afternoon like that, pressed together and painted in dappled light. 

(Nearby so she can keep an eye on him, but not to so close as to disrupt the quiet bubble of intimacy they’ve woven around themselves, Ahsoka plays endless games of Sudoku on her mobile and thinks how Rex is going to get his heart broken. That is not her concern, although of course it is. As long as it keeps beating, she’s done her job. And it will keep beating, but it will also ache until time smoothed that ache into something bittersweet so that one day Rex will smile at the memory.) 

* * *

iii. 

Obi-Wan invites him to a play. His brother is part of it and it’s going to be terrible, and Rex says yes anyway. 

“We’re only here for two more days,” Cody reminds him that night. 

“I know,” says Rex and doesn’t make eye contact. 

Cody sighs, but there’s no protecting against this. So he instead throws a condom packet at Rex’s head and tells him to be safe. 

Rex turns an alarming, and hilarious, shade of red, and he’s still blushing even as he meets Obi-Wan at the small theater. Obi-Wan raises an eyebrow but doesn’t comment. 

The play is just as terrible as promised, and they sneak out at intermission. Obi-Wan invites him back to his flat for coffee, and Rex thinks of the condom in his pocket and accepts. He texts Ahsoka to let her know the change of plans. 

(She, like everyone else, already knew this was where they would end up, but she, unlike Cody, is kind enough not to point that out.) 

Obi-Wan’s flat is what Rex pictured, when he let himself to do so: full of books and old, overstuffed furniture, and two cats. No, he thinks as one leaps from a high shelf to land on his head, three. 

Obi-Wan shoes the cats—Atwood, Jemison, and O’Hara—away, and then leads Rex to his bedroom, which is lit by one soft lamp. 

Sex is inherently ridiculous and awkward and clumsy, but also, as they finally figure out where their respective elbows and knees should go, incredibly fun. 

“Oh,” he gasps once, mouthing along the drag of Obi-Wan’s throat, “ oh.” 

Obi-Wan’s fingers dig into Rex’ shoulders, his waist, the back of his thigh, and then—well, they make good use of the condom Cody gave him, and then a few others. 

After, when their breathing has slowed and their sweat has cooled, Rex absently strokes his hand down Obi-Wan’s back and wishes, absently, that he could stay. 

* * *

iv. 

Rex wakes to an empty bed, and he pulls on his discarded pants and goes to find Obi-Wan in his small kitchen, the cats winding about his ankles. 

“I was going to make you breakfast,” Obi-Wan says, “but it appears I don’t have any food.” 

He looks genuinely put out by this that Rex laughs and kisses him. “We passed a shop last night. We’ll pick some food and I’ll make you breakfast.” 

Obi-Wan smiles and says, “That’s probably for the best. I can’t really cook.” 

They dress under the watchful, wary eyes of the cats that grow less wary when Rex takes the time to scratch behind their ears and sneak them an extra scoop of food when Obi-Wan isn’t looking. 

And because he is relaxed and happy and in something that is love in potentia, he does not check his mobile and thus does not see Ahsoka warning him about the paparazzi outside the door until he opens it and they’re met by flashes of lights as dozens of cameras go off. 

Ahsoka is there, as she always is, and shoves them back inside. “This is why you check your messages,” she snaps. 

Rex is still blinking spots from his eyes when Obi-Wan says, “Blast, they found me.” 

“Found you?” Rex says. 

Obi-Wan grimaces. “I’m afraid I haven’t been completely truthful with you. I’m the Duke of—well, it doesn’t really matter.” 

“You’re a duke,” Rex says. 

“I was going to tell you but—what’s happening? Is he all right?” 

Rex sits on the bottom step, head in his hand, and laughs. 

“He’ll be fine,” Ahsoka says with a roll of the eyes. It’s comforting to know that as bad as it can get, Ahsoka will forever judge Rex for his life choices. “Your highness, we need to get ahead of this.” 

“Highness?” Obi-Wan says, gaze gone startled and then assessing. “ _Oh_.” 

“I was going to tell you,” Rex says. 

Obi-Wan sighs and says, “Perhaps we should talk.” 

* * *

v. 

They talk and then Ahsoka takes them back to Cody where all of them talk some more. The photographs are already on the internet and soon they will be in print as well. There’s no hiding this, as Cody astutely observes. 

“What if we don’t?” Rex says, meeting Obi-Wan’s gaze. “Hide it, I mean.” 

There is a smile hiding just out of sight in the corner of Obi-Wan’s mouth as he says, “Well, a crown prince. That will surely please my grandfather.” 

And that is how it begins. 

(“Oh my god,” Anakin says when he finds out. “You’re banging an actual for real prince? Do you know what this makes you?” 

“Don’t,” Obi-Wan says, although it’s not like he expects his brother to listen. 

“You’re a real live Disney princess,” Anakin says gleefully, practically bouncing on his toes. “You have the cats, the prince, all that’s missing is the musical number.” 

“I can disinherit you,” Obi-Wan says. 

“No, you can’t,” Qui-Gon says. He has the front page of the tabloid proclaiming the secret love nest of the Crown Prince and the Duke, complete with their shocked faces, framed and hanging in the main hall of the family estate. “Did you see him once upon a time in a dream?” 

Obi-Wan hates his family, especially when his grandfather makes veiled comments about the grandchildren that Obi-Wan, the lack of childbearing hips or not, is not equipped to give him. 

Later, when it’s just him and Rex, Obi-Wan asks, “Can you have someone executed?” 

Rex thinks of his own brothers and says, “I wish.”) 

Obi-Wan cannot leave his position in the middle of the term and Rex has his own duties to see to, but they make it work, more or less, and when his parents finally meet Obi-Wan, his mother nods in approval and his father says, “Being the Royal Consort has its perks.” 

“Does it now?” Obi-Wan says, gaze sliding slyly to Rex, who turns red, but, well, it wasn’t like he wasn’t planning on proposing anyway. 

“Yes,” he says, “it does.” 

“Well, that’s all right, then,” Obi-Wan says, and smiles. 

**Author's Note:**

> If you want to prompt me something, pop on over to [tumblr](https://dharmaavocado.tumblr.com/).


End file.
